NEPAL ARRESTS, RELEASES TIBETANS

C O N F I D E N T I A L KATHMANDU 000834 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/08/2019 TAGS: PREF PREL PHUM CH NP SUBJECT: NEPAL ARRESTS, RELEASES TIBETANS REF: KATHAMANDU 829 Classified By: Charge d' Affaires, a.i., Jeffrey A. Moon. Reasons 1.4 ( b/d). ¶1. (C) On September 6, the Nepal Police Chief District Officer ordered the release of nine Tibetans refugees who had been held for four and five days. The CDO told OHCHR that the nine were being released on his authority and could be detained again by the same means. Seven of the Tibetans, ranging in age from 16 to 19, had been arrested September 2 outside Kathmandu's Hyatt Hotel, where a delegation of high-level Chinese officials was staying. Nepal police had separately arrested two young men who participated in a previous demonstration in Boudha, a largely Tibetan area, on September 1. ¶2. (C) Charge had raised the case of the nine detained Tibetan refugees with Prime Minister M.K. Nepal during a September 4 meeting (reftel),noting that the United States strongly supports the rights of Tibetan refugees to express freely their political views. Charge separately raised the possibility of registering and possibly resettling Tibetan refugees in the United States. The PM said that Nepal must keep China and India happy and not create problem for its "neighbors." Whatever the GON ultimately decides will be based on Nepal's national interest. The PM shared a complaint he heard that "one community" in the United States did not like the resettled Bhutanese refugees, perhaps because they were not proficient in English. Charge replied that he was not aware of any such problems, but would look into the matter. MOON